So Tweedledum, rolling down hill that way, which he could do much betterthan walking or running, saved the bunny uncle from the alligator, andMr. Longears was very glad, and so was Alice.
And if the knife and fork don't go to the candy store, just when supperis ready, and make the spoon holder wait for them before eating the icecream, I'll tell you next about Uncle Wiggily and Tweedledee.
CHAPTER XXV
UNCLE WIGGILY AND TWEEDLEDEE
"Oh, Uncle Wiggily!" cried a voice, as the old rabbit gentleman startedout from his hollow stump bungalow one morning to walk in the woods andlook for an adventure. "Oh, Uncle Wiggily, be careful!"
"Be careful of what, if you please, and who are you, if I may ask?"politely inquired the bunny.
"I am your friend Alice, from Wonderland," was the answer, "and I wantyou to be careful and not get hurt today."
"I always am careful," answered Uncle Wiggily. "I look for cabbage andturnip traps wherever I go, and I never pick up a bit of carrot on theWoodland path without first making sure there is no string fast to it,to catch me. What do you mean, Alice?" he asked the little flaxen-hairedgirl as she came out of the bushes and sat down on the stoop of thehollow stump bungalow. "What do you mean?"
"I don't know just what I do mean, Uncle Wiggily," said Alice. "But lastnight I dreamed you were in trouble and I could not help you. I felt sosorry! As soon as I woke up this morning I hurried over to tell you tobe careful."
"Oh, I'll be careful," promised the bunny gentleman. "But in your dreamdid no one help me?"
"Yes, after a while two funny little fat boys did," answered Alice. "ButI don't remember that part of my dream. However, if you are going for awalk I'll go with you and do what I can in case the Jabberwocky or theHop Scotch bird try to chase you."
"The Hop Scotch isn't a bird," said Uncle Wiggily, with a laugh thatmade his pink nose twinkle like the strawberry on top of a cheese cake."It's a bit of candy."
"Oh, Uncle Wiggily! It's a game!" cried Susie Littletail, the rabbitgirl, coming out from behind a stump just then. "It's a game where youjump around on the pavement, and if you and Alice are going to play it,please may I watch you?"
"We aren't going to play," said Alice. "It's long past play time."
"I am going to look for an adventure," said Uncle Wiggily.
"Then, please, may I come?" begged Susie. "I'll help look."
"Come along!" cried jolly Uncle Wiggily and soon the three of them wereon their way through the woods.
They had not gone very far, over the paths with the big green ferns oneither side, when, all of a onceness out from behind a big log jumpedthe two bad old skillery-scalery alligators, one with the humps on histail and the other with his tail all double-jointed, so he could wiggleit seven ways from Sunday.
"Ah, ha!" cried the hump-tailed 'gator.
"Ha, ha!" cried the double-jointed one. "At last we have caught you!"and they both made a grab for the rabbit gentleman, one catching him onthe left side and the other on the right, and holding him fast.
"Oh!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "Oh, dear! Please let me go!"
"No!" snapped the first 'gator. And "No!" snapped the second, bothflapping their tails.
"Oh, this is my dream! This is my dream!" said Alice, sadly. "But whereare the two fat boys that saved Uncle Wiggily. Where are they?"
"Here is one, if you please," answered a voice, and out steppedTweedledee, the queer little fat chap from the Alice in Wonderland book."I'll help you, Uncle Wiggily."
"Thank you, very much," spoke the rabbit gentleman. "If you would kindlymake these alligators let me go--"
"Pooh! Huh! Humph! What! Him make us let you go? Well, I should sayNOT!" sniffed the first alligator.
"The very idea" sneered the second. "It will take a great deal more thanone fat boy to make us let go of a nice, fat, juicy rabbit once we havecaught him. Certainly NOT!"
"Ahem! How about TWO fat boys?" suddenly asked another voice, and therestood another beside Tweedledee, a fat boy, who looked just the sameexactly; even as you seem to yourself when you peek at your reflectionin the bath room mirror.
"No, we won't let you go for two fat boys, either," said thedouble-jointed alligator, while Alice murmured:
"Oh, this is my dream! This is my dream! I wish I could remember how itcame out!"
"Was Uncle Wiggily saved?" asked Susie Littletail in a whisper.
"Yes," said Alice.
"Then it's all right," spoke the rabbit girl.
"Let Uncle Wiggily go!" cried Tweedledee in his most grown-up sort ofvoice.
"Yes, let him go at once!" added Tweedledum.
"No, indeed!" snapped both alligators together like twins, only, ofcourse, they weren't.
"Well, then," went on Tweedledee, "don't you dare to take away or hurthim unless you guess which are our names. Now tell me truly who am I?And, remember, if you don't guess right, you can't have Uncle Wiggily!"
"You are Tweedledum," said the hump-tailed 'gator.
"No, he is Tweedledee," said the other 'gator. "The one standing next tohim is Tweedledum. I guess I ought to know!"
"You're wrong," said the hump-tailed 'gator. "The one I saw first isTweedledum. I guess I ought to know!"
"I know better!" the double-jointed alligator declared. "He isTweedledee!"
"Tweedledum!" shouted the other 'gator.
"Tweedledee!" snapped his chum. And then they both began disputing,calling each other names, and throwing mud at one another, until,finally, they were so mixed up about Tweedledum and Tweedledee that theylet go of Uncle Wiggily and began shaking their claws at one another, sothe rabbit gentleman and Alice and Susie (as well as the two fat boyswho looked exactly alike) ran safely away and the bunny was saved, justas Alice had dreamed.
"And to think, if the alligators had only looked at our collars, theywould have seen our right names," Tweedledum laughed.
"Of course," said Tweedledee.
But everything came out all right and the alligators only had sawdustfor supper. And if the wash lady doesn't take my best collar button tofasten the tablecloth to the ironing board in the clothes basket, I'lltell you next about Uncle Wiggily and the pool of tears.
CHAPTER XXVI
UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE TEAR POOL
Uncle Wiggily Longears, the nice rabbit gentleman, was out walking inthe woods one day, wondering what sort of an adventure he would havewhen he saw a little path, leading away from his hollow stump bungalow,and it seemed to go through a part of the forest in which he had neverbefore been.
"I'll take that path and see where it leads," said the bunny gentlemanto himself.
So, taking a piece of ribbon grass, which grew near a clump of ferns, hetied his tall silk hat firmly on his head, leaving his ears sticking outof the holes at the top, and tucking under his paw his red, white andblue striped barber pole rheumatism crutch that Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy,his muskrat lady housekeeper, had gnawed for him out of a cornstalk,away started Uncle Wiggily.
It was a nice warm summer day, and before the old gentleman bunny hadgone very far he began to feel thirsty, just as you do when you go on apicnic and eat pickles, only I hope you don't eat too many of them.
"I wonder if there is not a spring of water around here?" thought UncleWiggily, and he began to look about under the low branches of the treesand bushes, at the same time listening for the laughing murmur of abrook flowing over green, mossy stones.
Then Uncle Wiggily sniffed with his pink, twinkling nose until it lookedlike a chicken picking up corn.
"Ah, ha!" cried the bunny uncle, "I smell water!" for you know animalsand birds can smell water when they cannot see it, in which they aremore gifted than are we.
So Uncle Wiggily sniffed and sniffed, and then, holding his pink,twinkling nose straight in front of him and letting it go on ahead,instead of lagging behind, he followed it until it led him straight to alittle pool of water that was sparkling in the sun, while green mossferns and bushes grew all around.
"Oh, wh
at a fine spring!" cried the bunny, "And how thirsty I am!"
Mr. Longears, which I call him when first I introduce him to anystrangers--Mr. Longears was just going to take a long drink from thepool, or spring, when he happened to notice a little piece of whitebirch bark tied with a bit of grass to a fern that grew near the water.
"Ha! I wonder if that is a notice not to trespass, or not to fish orhunt, and to keep off the grass, or no admittance except on business orsomething like that?" thought Uncle Wiggily, as he put on his glasses tosee if there was any writing on the birch bark, which animal folk use aswe use paper. And there was some writing on the bark. It read:
"Please do not jump in, or drink until I come. Alice from Wonderland."
"Ha! That is strange," thought Uncle Wiggily. "Alice must have been hereand put up that sign. But I wonder why she did it? If she knew how warmand thirsty I was she would not make me wait until she came to get adrink. Perhaps it is all a joke, and not her writing at all. One of thebad skillery-scalery alligators or the fuzzy fox may have put up thesign to fool me."
But when the rabbit gentleman took a second look at the birch bark signhe saw that it really was Alice's writing.
"Well, she must have some reason for it," said the bunny, with a sigh."She dreamed right about two fat boys--Tweedledum and Tweedledee--savingme from the alligators, so she must have some reason for asking me towait until she comes. But I am very thirsty."
Uncle Wiggily sat down on the green, mossy bank beside the spring ofwater and looked at it. And it seemed so cool and wet, and he was sothirsty, that it was all he could do to keep from jumping in and havinga bath, as well as drinking all he wanted.
The sun grew hotter and more hot, and the rabbit gentleman more and morethirsty, and he didn't know what to do when, all of a sudden, out fromthe bushes jumped a bad old black bear.
"Ah, ha!" growled the bear. "I am just in time, I see!" and he ran hisred tongue over his white teeth as though giving it a trolley ride in ababy carriage.
"In time for what?" asked Uncle Wiggily, casual like and make-believeindifferent.
"In time for lunch," answered the bear. "I was afraid I'd be a littlelate. I hope I haven't kept you waiting."
"For my lunch?" asked Uncle Wiggily.
"No. For MINE!" and once more the bear smacked his lips hungry like. "Iam just in time, I see."
"Oh, I thought you meant you were just in time to take a drink of thiswater," said the bunny, pointing at the pool. "If you did, you aren't."
"If I did I aren't? What kind of talk is that?" asked the bear, curiouslike.
"I mean we can't have a drink until Alice comes--the sign says so,"spoke Uncle Wiggily, politely.
"Pooh! I don't believe in signs," snapped the bear. "I'm thirsty and I'mgoing to have a drink," and with that he took a long one from thewoodland pool. And then a funny thing happened.
The bear began to grow smaller and smaller. First he was the size of adog, then of a cat, then of a kitten, then he shrank to the littlenessof a mouse, and next he was like a June bug. Then he became a July bug,next he was no larger than a little black ant, and finally he became amicrobe, and Uncle Wiggily couldn't see him at all.
"Well, thank goodness he's gone!" said the bunny. "But what made him soshrinking like I wonder?"
"It was the pool of tears," said a voice behind the bunny, and therestood Alice from Wonderland. "This pool is sour alum water, UncleWiggily," she said, "and if you drink it you shrink and shrivel up andblow away. That's why I put up the sign so nothing would happen to you.I knew about the pool, as it's in my story book. And now we can go havesome funny adventures."
And away they went over the hills and far away and that bear was neverseen again. But if your cat doesn't catch the ice cream cone in themosquito net and feed it to the gold fish, I'll tell you more of UncleWiggily's adventures in a little while. For the old gentleman rabbit hadmany surprising things happen to him. You may read about them in anotherbook to be called "Uncle Wiggily In Fairyland," which tells of some ofthe Genii and Gnomes of the Arabian Nights.
So, until I have that book ready for you, I'll just wish you aGood-night and many, many happy dreams!
THE END
Uncle Wiggily Picture Books
Three stories in each book By Howard R. Garis
Also twenty-seven color pictures By Lang Campbell
In these funny little books you can see in bright colored pictures theadventures of myself and my woodland friends. Also the pictures of somebad fellows, whose names you know.
So if the spoon holder doesn't go down cellar and take the coal shovelaway from the gas stove, you may read
No. 1. UNCLE WIGGILY'S AUTO SLED
If the rocking chair doesn't tickle the rag carpet and make the brassbed fall upstairs, you may read
No. 2. UNCLE WIGGILY'S SNOW MAN
If the umbrella doesn't go out in the rain and splash water all over therubber boots on the gold fish, you may read
No. 3. UNCLE WIGGILY'S HOLIDAYS
If the electric light doesn't cry for some molasses, when the matchleaves it all alone in the china closet, you may read
No. 4. UNCLE WIGGILY'S APPLE ROAST
If the egg beater doesn't try to jump over the coffee pot and fall inthe sink when the potato is learning to swim, you may read
No. 5. UNCLE WIGGILY'S PICNIC
If the sugar cookie doesn't go out walking with the fountain pen, andget all black so it looks like a chocolate cake, you may read
No. 6. UNCLE WIGGILY GOES FISHING
Hurry up and get these nice little books from the bookstore man, or senddirect to the publishers, 50 cents per copy, postpaid.
CHARLES E. GRAHAM & CO. NEW YORK
Uncle Wiggily
HIS MARK]
Burt's Series of One Syllable Books
14 Titles. Handsome Illuminated Cloth Binding
A series of Classics, selected specially for young people's reading, andtold in simple language for youngest readers. Printed from large type,with many illustrations.
Price 75 Cents per Volume
AESOP'S FABLES
Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By MARY GODOLPHIN. With 41 illustrations.
ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By MRS. J. C. GORHAM. With many illustrations.
ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES
(Selections.) Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By HARRIET T. COMSTOCK. With many illustrations.
BIBLE HEROES
Told in words of one syllable for young people. By HARRIET T. COMSTOCK. With many illustrations.
BLACK BEAUTY
Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By MRS. J. C. GORHAM. With many illustrations.
GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES
(Selections.) Retold in words of one syllable. By JEAN S. REMY. With many illustrations.
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
Into several remote regions of the world. Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By J. C. G. With 32 illustrations.
LIFE OF CHRIST
Told in words of one syllable for young people. By JEAN S. REMY. With many illustrations.
LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS
Told in words of one syllable for young people. By JEAN S. REMY. With 24 large portraits.
PILGRIM'S PROGRESS
Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By SAMUEL PHILLIPS DAY. With 33 illustrations.
REYNARD THE FOX
The Crafty Courtier. Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By SAMUEL PHILLIPS DAY. With 23 illustrations.
ROBINSON CRUSOE
His life and surprising adventures retold in words of one syllable for young people. By MARY A. SCHWACOFER. With 32 illustrations.
SANFORD AND MERTON
Retold in words of one syllable for young people. By MARY GODOLPHIN. With 2
0 illustrations.
SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON
Retold in words of one syllable for young people. Adapted from the original. With 31 illustrations.
For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by thepublishers, =A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23rd Street, New York=.
THE MOTHER GOOSE SERIES
24 TITLES HANDSOME CLOTH BINDING, ILLUMINATED COVERS
A series of popular books for young people. Each book is well printedfrom large type on good paper, frontispiece in colors, profuselyillustrated, and bound in cloth, with ornamental covers in three colors,making a series of most interesting books for children at a reasonableprice.
=Price, 75 cents per copy=
=Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp=, and Other Stories. ProfuselyIllustrated.
=Animal Stories= for Little People. Profusely Illustrated.
=Beauty and the Beast=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated.
=Bird Stories= for Little People. Profusely Illustrated.
=Bluebeard=, and Other Stories. Profusely Illustrated.
=Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper=, and Other Stories. ProfuselyIllustrated.